Last updated on 18-May-1997
IRC Culture and Language
Although your first impression of IRC may be one of a wild and anarchistic culture of spontaneous chat and outrageous nicknames, there are definite cultural and linguistic characteristics unique to this medium.
Culture
It is accepted practice, upon entering a new channel, to announce your entry with a customary "hello" to those present. On the smaller channels, people will probably greet you in return. However, on the channels with much traffic, such as #funfactory, you cannot expect people to stop their conversation and welcome a newcomer each time they enter the channel.It is also accepted practice to announce your "exit" from a channel beforehand. True, you can simply write /quit or /exit, or write /quit {message} leaving a message why your are leaving upon exiting the channel. But it is much more polite to announce your intentions first so that people have a chance to bid you farewell or send you one more message before you leave.
IRC is a place for emotion also. In "normal", face to face communication, we depend much upon facial gestures and body language to get our point across. What happens in a "textual environment", such as IRC, when we want to add some indication of our emotional intention in addtion to the written message?
There is a rich addition to the IRC culture (and could be considered also an addition to the IRC linguistic tradition) called "emoticons". We add them to our messages to show different emotions.
For instance, let's say that I write -
She's not coming to visit.
This in itself does not portray the way I view this news. However, if I write it like this -
She's not coming to visit. :-)
This means that I am happy about the news, as can be seen by the smiley (the smiling face that comes after the sentence - you have to look at it from the side.)
If I write -
She's not coming to visit. :-(
Then I am clearly sad about the news.
She's not coming to visit. ;-)
Here I am winking at you in stating the sentence, showing that there is something behind my statement.The two simplest emoticons are the "happy face" and "sad face". There are many more. Here are a few of them.
:-) Happy
;-) Winky
:-D Big smile
:-)) Very happy
B-) Evil grin
>:-) Evil grin
:-X I'm not telling (my lips are sealed)
}:-) Develish
:-^) Tongue in cheek
0:-) Saint
:-)8 Happy wearing a bow tie
8-) Happy with glasses
%-) Drunk
:*) Drunk/Clown
:-0 Shocked
:-| Indecision
:'-( Crying
:,( Crying
:~-( Crying/Shed A Tear
:'-( Crying
:~(~~ Crying
:-( Sad
:-{ Sad
>:-( Sadder
:-& Tongue tied
:-###.. Being sick
[:-) Is Wearing A Walkman
:-)~ Drooling
:-r Tongue out
:-P Sticking Out Tongue
:-o Shouting
:-/ Skeptical
:-O Yelling/Shocked
=:-) Punk rocker
C=:-) Chef
:-$ Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
:-@ Screaming/Swearing/Very Angry/About To Be Sick
:-# Been Smacked In The Mouth/Wears A Brace/Kiss
R-) Broken Glasses
(:-) Bald
:-))) Is Very Fat
:-{} Wears Lipstick
@:-) Wears A Turban
>:-> Leering
$-) Yuppie/Just Won A Large Sum Of Money
:=) Two Noses
8:] Gorilla
8-) Wears Glasses
B:-) Wears Sun Glasses On Head
:-T Keeping A Straight Face/Tight Lipped
:-y Said With A Smile
:-| Disgusted/Grim/No Expression
:-Q A Smoker
:-! A Smoker
%-\ Has A Hangover
|-o Bored
:-X A Kiss/Lips Are Sealed
(:-D Has A Big Mouth
(:+) Has A Big Nose
:-{) Has A Moustache
:-* Just Ate Something Sour/Bitter Taste/Kiss
Language
IRC is creating its own special abbreviated language. For instance -
Sandstorm: And the funny thing is, he never saw it coming.
Greengiant: LOL
Greengiant is "laughing out loud" in response to sandstorm's message.Look at some of the other abbreviations often used in IRC -
AFAIK - "As Far As I Know"
AFK - "Away From Keyboard" (person is away, example: AFKnick, or nickAFK)
AKA - "Also Known As"
ASAP - "As Soon As Possible"
BBIAF - "Be Back In A Few"
BBL - "Be Back Later"
BCNU - "Be seeing you"
BF - "BoyFriend" or "Best Friend" (make sure the other person knows which one)
BOL - "Bursts Out Laughing"
BTW - "By The Way"
BRB - "Be Right Back"
B4 - "Before"
CUL8R - "See You Later"
DL or D/L - "Download"
FAQ - "Frequently Asked Questions"
FATT - "Funny At The Time"
FHS - "Friendly HandShake"
FYA - "For Your Amusement"
FYI - "For Your Information"
FOCL - *clunk* - "Fell Off Chair Laughing"
FWIW - "For What It's Worth"
F2F - "Face To Face"
4U2 - "For You Too"
GA - "Go Ahead" (used when two ppl try to type simultaneously)
GD&R - "Grinning, Ducking & Running" (after snide remark)
GF - "GirlFriend" or "Good Friend"
GMTA - "Great Minds Think Alike" (used when people type a similar thing at the same time)
GRMBL - "Grumble"
GYHTBT - "Guess You Had To Be There"
HHOJ - "Ha Ha Only Joking"
HP - "Home Page"
IANAL - "I Am Not A Lawyer (But...)"
IC - "I.C., I see"
IDK - "I Don't Know"
IMHO - "In My Humble Opinion"
IMO - "In My Opinion"
IOW - "In Other Words"
IRL - "In Real Life"
ISP - "Internet Service Provider"
IYKWIM - "If You Know What I Mean"
IYKWIMAITYD - "If You Know What I Mean And I Think You Do"
JAM - "Just A Minute"
JK or J/K - "Just Kidding"
K - "OK, okay"
L8R - "Later, see you later"
LD - "Long Distance"
LKOM - "Light Kiss On Mouth"
LOL - "Laughing Out Loud"
LTNS - "Long Time No See"
MIN - "Just a minute"
MORF - "Male or Female?"
NHOH - "Never Heard Of Him/Her"
NP - "No Problem"
NRN - "No Reply Necessary"
OIC - "Oh, I See"
OK - abbreviation of "oll korrect", alteration of "all correct"
OTOH - "On The Other Hand"
OTT - "Over The Top"
PKOL - "Passionate Kiss On Lips"
PMFJI - "Pardon Me For Jumping In" (a polite way to get into a running discussion)
PMJI - "Pardon My Jumping In" (another polite way to get into a running discussion)
PPL - "People"
PS - "Post Script"
RE - "Returned"
ROTFL - "Rolling On The Floor Laughing"
RL - "Real Life"
SOHF - "Sense Of Humor Failure"
SPAM - "Stupid Persons' AdvertiseMent"
SUP or 'SUP - "What's Up"
SWALK - "Sealed With A Loving Kiss"
TANSTAAFL - "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"
THX - "Thanks"
TNX 1.0E6 - "Thanks a million"
TIA - "Thanks In Advance"
TPTB - "The Powers That Be"
TTFN - "Ta Ta For Now"
TTYL - "Talk To You Later"
UOK? - "Are you okay?"
WB - "Welcome Back"
WITWAY - "Where In The World Are You?"
WOMBAT - "Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time"
WRT - "With Respect/Regards To"
WYSIWYG - "What You See Is What You Get"
YMMV - "Your Mileage May Vary" (You may not have the same luck I did)
YWIA - "You're Welcome In Advance"
TTFN = ta ta for now
ZZZ = sleep
What about those crazy nicknames?
You've seen them all - "goliath", "sanddune", "greengiant", "airman23", "alien", "Applespice", "atombomb", "bigbird", and others ....
What's in a name? Why don't people just use their own real names -
i.e. David_LL instead of "sandstorm" or "sanddune"?
(note that a nickname can not be two words with a space in-between. If you want to combine two words, it is common practice to combine them with the underscore ( _ ) character)I imagine that there are a number of psychologists and sociologists out there researching the use of nicknames on IRC and their social/cultural/psychological implications. I won't try to dig into this issue here. Ask yourself why you chose the nickname you did, or why you decided to simply go with your own name.
We will meet next for a IRC chat on Tuesday, May 20 at 22:00 (Israeli time) on the lizard.ramat-negev.org.il server. Until that time, try to get on GLOBAL IRC and use some of the emoticons and abbreviations listed above.
Assignment -
- Find at least 3 abbreviations that you see while on IRC that are not listed above.
- Find at least 3 more emoticons that are not listed above.
- Choose the two most outrageous nicknames that you find on IRC and discover the real names behind these nicknames (which command do you need to give in order to do this?)
- Find out which channels on global IRC have exactly 15 people online.
- Send the answers to each of these tasks to me -
Email: david@boker.org.il